hoomey] CAUSES OF THE OUTBREAK 841 



d!' this And, and an agreement which, after much debate, had won general approval 

 was committed to them for presentation to the Indians. The objections of the 

 Indians to the bill, however, were many and they \\ ere ardently pressed. Some pre- 

 ferred their old life, the more earnestly because schools and churches were sapping 

 and undermining it. Some wished delay. All complained that many of tin- engage- 

 ments solemnly made with them in former years when they had surrendered valued 

 rights had been broken, and here they were right. They suspected that present 

 promises of pay lor their lands would prove only old ones in a new shape (when 

 milch cows were promised, cows having been promised in previous agreements, the 

 Indians exclaimed, "There's that same old co\v"i. and demanded that no further 

 surrender should be expected until former promises had been fulfilled. They were 

 assured that a new era bad dawned, and that all past promises would be kept. So 

 we all thought. The benefits of the proposed agreement were set before them, and 

 verbal promises, over and above the stipulations of the bill, were made, that special 

 requests of the Indians would be met. The Indians have no competent representa- 

 tive body. The commissioners had to treat at each agency with a crowd, a crowd 

 composed of full-bloods, half-breeds, and squaw men, a crowd among whom all sorts 

 of sinister influences and brute force were at work. Commissioners with such a 

 business in hand have the devil to light, and can fight him, so it often seems, only 

 with tire, and many friends of the Indians think that in this case the commission, 

 convinced that the acceptance of the bill was essential, carried persuasion to the 

 verire of intimidation. I do not blame them if they sometimes did. The wit and 

 patience id' an angel would fail often in such a task. 



But the requisite number, three-fourths of the Indians, signed the bill, and expecta- 

 tion of rich and prompt rewards ran high. The Indians understand little of the 

 complex forms and delays of our government. Six months passed, and nothing 

 came. Three months more, and nothing came. A bill was drawn up in the Senate 

 under General Crook's eye and passed, providing for the fulfillment of the promises 

 of the commission, but it was pigeon-holed in the House. But in the midst of the 

 winter's pinching cold the. Indians learned that the transaction had been declared 

 complete and half of their land proclaimed as throw n open to the whites. Sun eys 

 were not promptly made: perhaps they could not be. and no one knew what land 

 was theirs and what was not. The very earth seemed sliding from beneath their 

 feet. Other misfortunes seemed to be crowding on them. On some reserves their 

 rations were being reduced, and lasted, even when carefully husbanded, but one- 

 half the period for which they were issued. (The amount of beef loughl for the 

 Indians is not a fair criterion of the amount he receives. A steer will lose 200 pounds 

 or more of its flesh during the course of the winter.) In the summer of 1889 all the 

 people on the Pine Kidge reserve, men, women, and children, were called in from 

 their farms to the agency to treat with the commissioners and were kept there a 

 whole month, and. on returning to their homes, found that their cattle had broken 

 into their fields ami trampled clown or eaten up all their crops. This was true in a 

 degree elsewhere. In 1890 the crops, which promised splendidly early in July, failed 

 entirely later, because of a severe drought. The people were often hungry, and. the 

 physicians in many cases said, died when taken sick, not so much from disease as for 

 want of food, i This is doubtless true of all the poor — the poor in our cities ami the 

 poor settlers in the west. | 



No doubt the people could have saved themselves from sintering if industry, 

 economy, and thrift had abounded; but these are just the virtues which a people 

 merging from barbarism lack. The measles prevailed in 1889 and were exceedingly 

 fatal. Next year the grippe swept over the people with appalling results. Whoop- 

 ing cough followed among the children. Sullenness and gloom began to gather, 

 especially among the heathen and wilder Indians. A witness of high character told 

 me that a marked discontent amounting almost to despair prevailed in many quarters. 

 The people said their children were all dying from diseases brought by the whites, 

 their race was perishing from the face of the earth, and they might as well lie killed 



